A newly filed class-action lawsuit claims Oura Ring cannot accurately determine sleep stages because it relies on AI inference rather than direct brain-wave measurement, likening its accuracy to a coin flip. The complaint argues Oura is exploiting sleep-deprived consumers by marketing statistical estimates as reliable science. Verge writer Victoria Song notes that no wearable device measures brain activity directly, since all such gadgets rely on motion and physiological proxies interpreted through algorithms.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-26
Presentation software company Gamma has acquired Lica, an Accel-backed startup that turned screenshots and recordings into branded marketing videos for e-commerce clients. Lica's co-founders, Priyaa Kalyanaraman and Purvanshi Mehta, will now lead a new design research division inside Gamma focused on visual communication and AI.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-25
Apple unveiled updated Mac Mini and Mac Studio desktops featuring new chip options, including the first Apple computer built on an M6-generation chip made with TSMC's 2-nanometer process, alongside an M5 Pro option. The company emphasized neural engine hardware and a memory architecture designed to help developers run and fine-tune large AI models directly on the machines rather than in the cloud.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-25
Apple has introduced the M5 Ultra, its most powerful chip yet, by fusing two M5 Max dies into a single quad-die processor connected at 4.4TB/s. It offers up to 36 CPU cores, an 80-core GPU option, and support for up to 512GB of unified memory with 1.2TB/s bandwidth, arriving in new Mac Studio models starting at $5,499.
engadget.com
· 2026-08-25
Bankrupt Spirit Airlines accepted a $10 million bid from Google to acquire 34 years of company records, including invoices, flight operations details, Wi-Fi sales, and employee files, beating a $7.5 million offer from AI firm Mercor. The Association of Flight Attendants, representing 5,500 former Spirit crew members, has filed a court objection arguing the sale exposes sensitive worker data that employees never consented to having used for AI training, even though Google says customer information is excluded.
wired.com
· 2026-08-25
Apple has introduced the M6 chip, its first built on a 2nm process, featuring a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU with a dual 16-core Neural Engine for on-device AI tasks. Alongside it, Apple revealed the M5 Ultra, which fuses two M5 Max dies into a quad-die chip with up to 36 CPU cores, 80 GPU cores, and support for 512GB of unified memory. The M6 will power a new Mac Mini and the M5 Ultra a new Mac Studio, both open for preorder Tuesday ahead of a September 22nd release.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-25
Business Insider reports that Hugging Face has fielded acquisition interest valuing the AI model-sharing platform at $13 billion or more, nearly triple its $4.5 billion valuation from a 2023 Salesforce Ventures-led round. No buyer has been named and no deal is finalized, but the startup is reportedly consulting banks to weigh potential bids.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-24
Researchers highlight a stark 'data efficiency gap': large language models require orders of magnitude more text than a human child hears to master language basics. Stanford's Michael Frank and Georgetown's Ethan Wilcox note that while frontier models train on trillions of tokens, children pick up language fundamentals from a fraction of that input within their first year or two of life. Scientists are studying how kids achieve this to both understand human cognition and potentially inform more efficient AI training methods.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-08-24
A landmark ruling by Judge William Alsup found that Anthropic's use of copyrighted books to train its AI models was lawful under fair use, even though the company was penalized $1.5 billion for obtaining those books through pirated shadow libraries. Attorney Cathy Gellis explains that the judge distinguished between illegally acquiring texts and the act of training an AI on them, comparing the latter to a writer studying literature rather than copying it.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-23
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